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Do you have any of Sirlin's other games (Puzzle Strike, Yomi), or just Flash Duel? I've been trying to decide which of those I want to pick up.

I vote for Yomi. It's just great, and you can get a couple of decks fairly cheaply. Puzzle Strike... I don't know, it's just not something that sounded like a "must have", and I don't really hear about people playing it, either.

When I was a child, I had a fever...My BoardGameGeek profile
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mi-go hunterOnce again I'm back in the lab.Cleaning my knives, ready for stabs.Registered Userregular

I can say that I don't regret having spent $100 on the deluxe edition ...
It's weird like that though. For what you get, the price is rather steep. But it's packaged well, and it's a good game. You just ... You really need to know that you're going to get to play it, in my opinion. It's widely acknowledged that, without a greater insight to the game - that is, understanding the characters on a sub-surface level, and having at least a loose memorization of their spread - it's pretty much entirely a game of luck using a RPS mechanic. You might enjoy it alright, but it's not the same game at entry-level that it is after hundreds of plays. And I think, as of right now, that I've gotten in maybe 30 ...

Perhaps the biggest problem with Yomi is when you put it next to something else. Other games that cost $100 typically guarantee a more universal appeal, come with more components, and have a higher re-sale value. When you get Yomi, you know you're getting it because you either A) support David Sirlin (I fall more into this camp), B) have a love affair with the game (I'm in this camp, but still more in A), or C) know some bros who enjoy the mindset that comes with fighting games. Because, lets face it, for another $15-20, you could be picking up a copy of Antiquity, or Indonesia ...

Yeah that's my issue with Yomi. I played one game of it, and felt like it would take at least 30-40 plays just to even really get into it, and start enjoying it. It felt like you first had to learn and understand the mechanics of the game. Then you had to understand the style of your character and what makes them different from the default sort of strategy. THEN you had to learn how to play against different people with different characters, both in terms of how their styles match up against yours, but also how those player's personalities match up against yours, which is critical in deciding what to actually play. It seemed like a ton of work for something which is 2 player only, and isn't exactly common.

Having said that, the full set is probably the only way to buy it, as that's the only way to be sure you can a) learn the whole game and b) be able to play against other people

Plus there's a really cool online tournament of this being hosted through BGG, and I'm doing well in it!

I really like WOTR. It's something about the adaptive decision making every round, like in Runewars. I like seeing that I have 3 Character and 2 Muster actions to work with and then having to plan from that.

Plus there's a really cool online tournament of this being hosted through BGG, and I'm doing well in it!

I really like WOTR. It's something about the adaptive decision making every round, like in Runewars. I like seeing that I have 3 Character and 2 Muster actions to work with and then having to plan from that.

Runewars is my favorite game right now, I think. I might have to check out WOTR - it has been on my wishlist for years.

from what i understand about Yomi, knowing about how fighting games work - both mechanically (frames, mixups, reversals, etc.) and strategically (how to play mindgames, how to capitalize on an advantage or escape a disadvantage) - is helpful in getting into the game, so i feel like i'd be well suited

My Risk Legacy world has opened its last packet, so the PbP will be starting soon. This is intended for five people that wouldn't otherwise be able to experience this awesome bit of tabletoppery, and it's a 15 game commitment! Only sign-up if you feel you can stick with it for the whole run!

Regarding Yomi, I definitely am happy with the purchase. Sure, it's a lighter affair than most other games at it's price range, but that kind of is a good thing. And there is definitely strategy beyond the RPS mechanic that makes the game worth-while. It's one of my favorite games to play within it's category of playtime.

I...I got Paths of Glory recently. BGG says its playtime is 480 minutes. What have I got myself into??

Got three great rounds of Command & Colors: Ancients last night. Rolled pretty awful the first round. Rolled excessively great the second round. And my opponent rolled flat out awful the third round.

The first game was the 3rd scenario from the base game. I was Carthage and I lost by a single point. I was excited about commanding elephants for the first time, but all they seemed to accomplish was give Rome easy points. However, upon reviewing the rules after the fact, I discovered that they are supposed to ignore all swords. So maybe that would have helped? Hard to tell. They rampaged almost constantly, which was a fun diversion. But at the end of the day they barely inflicted any casualties and mostly just fed a Roman victory. That followed by losing a heavy unit and my leader to a series of ranged attacks with a failed leader casualty check roll pretty much ended my game. I had one last attempt when I used "I am Sparticus" to even the odds, and actually was able to inflict some decent damage. However a failed roll with a full strength heavy unit attacking a half strength heavy unit (0 hits on 6 dice, hit back with 3 hits on 5 dice) left him easy pickings the next round. Rome played Clash of Shields and wiped him out with enough hits on 7 dice.

The second game was an absolutely route. I played Carthage again. We just moved onto Scenario 4 where Carthage has two flanks of light cavalry and a center of heavy cavalry. And I started my hand with command heavy and mounted charge. I started off moving my right flank of vulnerable lights up trying to tempt out Rome. He took the bait, and on turn 2 I commanded my heavies within range, and on turn 3 I did a mounted charge. 4 Heavy Infantry inflicted 6 casualties in one turn and the game was over. It was an absolute blood bath and it left us with enough time to just move straight on to the other scenario.

So the third game was just the next scenario. Carthage had a pretty ok force with slings in front, one flank with an elephant and light cavalry, and the other flank with medium cavalry and an elephant. The typical mix of heavies, mediums and auxilia out front. But they have an ambush force of warriors and medium cavalry that can be deployed behind enemy lines with a leadership card. So things played out rather slow at first. I moved my left flank forward with a medium cavalry supported by a leader taking point. And then things got ugly. Rome sent Warriors, an Auxilia and some Medium Cav after him with a command 3. I first striked right off the bat when he attacked with the warriors, wiping them out with a very lucky roll. It continued with him scoring zero hits on the remaining two units, and my rolling instant kills. This immediately put me up 3-0. In the mean time there was a lot of line commanding. Rome played a line command, followed by me playing a counter attack to copy it, then 2 more line commands. This had the effect of allowing me to consistently fire 3 turns in a row with my front line of slings and auxilia. I slowly whittled down almost two full kills from these sustained volleys. My heavy on the left flank eventually fell and the leader thankfully escaped, but by this point I played my ambush party on my right flank behind the river. Charging straight into the river and attacking, I had rather good luck. Romes entire flank was thrown into disarray and he had to pull units off his center to somehow stop this new threat. My ambush was able to take out a single unit in the meantime, and once Rome weakened it's center to deal with the immediate threat, I was able to pick off a lone light infantry left behind and win. Highlights of that round included Rome rolling two flags! But it was on a full strength warrior with an attached leader, that got to ignore both flags.

All in all it was a great night. I'm not proud to say I nerd raged after the first round at the situation I wound up in after Sparticus failed. But the following two games did a lot to show me how much my confirmation bias was acting up in that first round. I apologized for nerd raging and my friend joked that he enjoys trying to make me nerd rage, it means he's playing well. So hopefully there were no hard feelings. My nerd rage comes and goes as an issue. Difficulties in life definitely seem to agitate it. And certain games bring it out more than others. Especially dice based games. Which is unfortunate because I'm really enjoying Command & Colors and I'd hate for my nerd rage to ruin it.

<snip>
All in all it was a great night. I'm not proud to say I nerd raged after the first round at the situation I wound up in after Sparticus failed. But the following two games did a lot to show me how much my confirmation bias was acting up in that first round. I apologized for nerd raging and my friend joked that he enjoys trying to make me nerd rage, it means he's playing well. So hopefully there were no hard feelings. My nerd rage comes and goes as an issue. Difficulties in life definitely seem to agitate it. And certain games bring it out more than others. Especially dice based games. Which is unfortunate because I'm really enjoying Command & Colors and I'd hate for my nerd rage to ruin it.

Every time I read "nerd rage" in that post, I looked at your avatar. "DIIIIIIIIIIIIICE!" That should totally be under your avatar.

jergarmar on May 2012

When I was a child, I had a fever...My BoardGameGeek profile
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So, how bout that Ogre kickstarter? They've got nearly a half million pledged for an initial goal of 20k (right now they're at 442,409).
Thinking about kicking in a hundred to get a copy of the game. I've got a thing for big, impressive looking boxes.
They say that thing weighs 14 pounds.

I imagine that Ogre has something of a following around here (and it was my own failure that couldn't find an existing thread dedicated to it). It's one of those games that's always looked interesting to me when I see it referenced. I mean, puny human hover tanks and infantry against a giant fortress like super-tank that could eat a baneblade for breakfast? Sounds like a blast to me, so long as I get to be the super tank.

Really hoping they hit the 450k stretch goal. They say they'll get the actual miniatures back in print at that point, rather then the chipboard models they're planning on using now.

$450,000 - Okay! Somehow, some way, we WILL bring back the Ogre miniatures (and not just the Ogres themselves, but the whole line). Maybe resin, maybe metal. I have already gotten some interesting responses from custom casters.

Don't get me wrong, these look okay, but I'd like to see the actual minis make a comeback with the game.

Eclipse: Wow, I really enjoyed that. We actually stopped on turn 8 because we were all absolutely starving and it was 4pm and we hadn't had lunch. Me and one other player were about equal on points, so I claim a private moral victory coz he's played it five times and that was my first. A five-player game, and someone insisted on us using the more complex initiative system variant from BGG (turn order is not clockwise from the first player to pass, but instead is the reverse of the order they pass in), so it took quite a while. I don't like that variant btw - it adds some un-needed balance to turn order but was annoying, slowed things, and led to several turn order mistakes and nearly-missed turns. Anyway I loved it and definitely want to buy it.

Galaxy Trucker was OK, but I am starting to like Vlaada Chvatil's games less and less the more I play them. Most of them are so chaotic - I feel like I am on a fun rollercoaster 'experience' rather than playing a game. The turn of one card can have massive effects on the game, and you can't assess the randomness of a particular event card in the same way you can assess dice-rolls or the mix of cards in a deckbuilder. I also don't find the 'hilarious' rulebooks funny at all. The written humour there is too forced.

Next time we have a big game day we are going to bring out some big guns - either Runewars, Middle Earth Quest, Star Trek Fleet Captains, Civilisation, Descent, Hansa Teutonica, Age of Steam or Dominant Species.

Personally I want to play Middle Earth Quest, because it's mine and I am a bit obsessed with it.

Tomorrow, Carson City, Sentinels of the Multiverse, Rune Age, Thunderstone are all planned.

Re: OGRE. I'm pretty sure that I will never, in my life, ever again buy a game with the Steve Jackson name on it. I own so many of them, and they're all so tremendously lacking in the end.

Ogre/GEV is by far SJG best output and not just because it is the tallest dwarf - Ogre is a fun wargame with interesting tactical and strategic choices that plays quickly. Sure game technology has had a number of revolutions since it was first released but its core design is really, really, solid.

Re: OGRE. I'm pretty sure that I will never, in my life, ever again buy a game with the Steve Jackson name on it. I own so many of them, and they're all so tremendously lacking in the end.

Ditto. I've never played a game of his and liked it.

My first designer board games were Zombies!!! and Munchkins. They were novel experiences at the time. I just discovered euro style games soon after and grew out of them. I suspect a lot of people encounter them at a time when their tastes aren't that refined, and all they'd ever played before was Monopoly. It can certainly blow minds in the right circumstances.

I used to play Ogre and GEV when they first came out, and I enjoyed them a lot.

Nowadays, though, they seem tremendously dated. Move and then shoot based on CRT? No thanks.

Cathode Ray Tube?

Seriously though I have been meaning to ask if anyone could give a summary of OGRE, (also explain the difference between OGRE and GEV) and tell me if it is fun or just silly.

A friend of mine brought a copy of Ogre to play a few weeks ago. I definitely had fun. Yeah it's probably less complex than C&C:A, but enjoyable. I can't speak to how "dated" it feels, as I was born waaaay after it came out. I think it's probably about on par with Memoir '44 in terms of rules complexity.

OGRE was the first game and is based on an asymmetric-forces concept. One side has conventional forces, tanks, infanty, missile launchers, etc. The other side has one unit, the OGRE, which is both huge and mighty. I played a few times as each side, and I actually did find it to be well balanced, which is excellent! I have a thing for balanced asymmetry.

GEV is basically an expansion of the scope of OGRE. The rules are updated so that both sides can have conventional forces and OGREs, so I suppose it's true to say that OGRE is a game of GEV in which the forces are restricted to 1 OGRE vs some conventionals, and the map is smaller.

I'll be getting this designers edition, I had fun playing, I don't have any OGRElike game, force asymmetry is interesting, and frankly I love the idea of the project itself - a stupidly big huge edition with everything - and I want to support that. I get the SJG hate, but haven't been burned by it myself, having only bought Illuminati and Munchkin.

Re: OGRE. I'm pretty sure that I will never, in my life, ever again buy a game with the Steve Jackson name on it. I own so many of them, and they're all so tremendously lacking in the end.

Ditto. I've never played a game of his and liked it.

My first designer board games were Zombies!!! and Munchkins. They were novel experiences at the time. I just discovered euro style games soon after and grew out of them. I suspect a lot of people encounter them at a time when their tastes aren't that refined, and all they'd ever played before was Monopoly. It can certainly blow minds in the right circumstances.

This is exactly how I got into the hobby with Munchkin. My cousin and his wife were visiting for the weekend, we were in Barnes & Noble, and it was the only designer game on the shelves that I had heard of before. We had so much fun with it that we ran out to the nearest FLGS the next day and bought the Cthulhu version and Christmas expansions. I'm starting to branch out into games with a bit more depth and less chaos, but it still has a special place in my collection.

Re: OGRE. I'm pretty sure that I will never, in my life, ever again buy a game with the Steve Jackson name on it. I own so many of them, and they're all so tremendously lacking in the end.

Ditto. I've never played a game of his and liked it.

My first designer board games were Zombies!!! and Munchkins. They were novel experiences at the time. I just discovered euro style games soon after and grew out of them. I suspect a lot of people encounter them at a time when their tastes aren't that refined, and all they'd ever played before was Monopoly. It can certainly blow minds in the right circumstances.

This is exactly how I got into the hobby with Munchkin. My cousin and his wife were visiting for the weekend, we were in Barnes & Noble, and it was the only designer game on the shelves that I had heard of before. We had so much fun with it that we ran out to the nearest FLGS the next day and bought the Cthulhu version and Christmas expansions. I'm starting to branch out into games with a bit more depth and less chaos, but it still has a special place in my collection.

Re: OGRE. I'm pretty sure that I will never, in my life, ever again buy a game with the Steve Jackson name on it. I own so many of them, and they're all so tremendously lacking in the end.

Ditto. I've never played a game of his and liked it.

My first designer board games were Zombies!!! and Munchkins. They were novel experiences at the time. I just discovered euro style games soon after and grew out of them. I suspect a lot of people encounter them at a time when their tastes aren't that refined, and all they'd ever played before was Monopoly. It can certainly blow minds in the right circumstances.

This is exactly how I got into the hobby with Munchkin. My cousin and his wife were visiting for the weekend, we were in Barnes & Noble, and it was the only designer game on the shelves that I had heard of before. We had so much fun with it that we ran out to the nearest FLGS the next day and bought the Cthulhu version and Christmas expansions. I'm starting to branch out into games with a bit more depth and less chaos, but it still has a special place in my collection.

Similar here. Munchkin was one of my first games. Think I got Illuminati before that though. I had many entertaining nights in first year of uni playing drunken Munchkin. Great game? No. Good social lubricant? Sure, when mixed with alcohol.

I barely play it these days, but I don't have the heart to get rid of it.

I had many entertaining nights in first year of uni playing drunken Munchkin. Great game? No. Good social lubricant? Sure, when mixed with alcohol.

I barely play it these days, but I don't have the heart to get rid of it.

I found this to be true depending on who you are with. Last time I played it the host of the game was super-serious about playing "well", yet many of us were not sober (me included). His getting upset at some of our drunken play choices has literally made me not want to play it again.

My Risk Legacy world has opened its last packet, so the PbP will be starting soon. This is intended for five people that wouldn't otherwise be able to experience this awesome bit of tabletoppery, and it's a 15 game commitment! Only sign-up if you feel you can stick with it for the whole run!